More from the Press Room: The Questions that Were Asked and Answered

While all eyes were on the main stage at the Oscars this year, the winners were ushered backstage for their photo call before making their way into the press room. Every winner came through the room. Here are some highlight of the questions and answers from winners in every categories.

Best Adapted Screenplay – Charles Randolph and Adam McKay:

On Chris Rock’s Monolgue

Charles Randolph: “I loved it.”
Adam McKay: “I thought it was jabbing at Hollywood yet at the same time kind of dealing with like a new era of sort of how we discuss diversity. I thought it was very evenhanded, and really impressive and really funny.”

Best Original Screenplay – Josh Singer and Tom McCarthy:

On whether the Oscar win will move the needle on the issue of church sex abuse:

Josh Singer: “Yes. We certainly hope so. You know, there have been some nice positive developments in the last little while. The Papal Commission on the Protection of Minors, which is the Pope’s clergy sex‑abuse commission, screened the film, which we were heartened by, but we were somewhat disheartened when two days later they suspended Peter Saunders, who was one of two survivors on the panel. And they suspended him because he had been advocating for too much change.”

Josh Singer on whether he wanted to add anything to he speech:

Josh Singer: “No, I just wanted to say that some of the best pieces on the movie have come right out of the Boston Globe from Meredith and from Ty Burr and Janice Page. And so I just want to say we appreciate that.”

On what it was like to film in a real-life newsroom and was it what they expected:

Tom McCarthy: “Having played Scott Templeton on THE WIRE, I had some sense of what a newsroom looks like, but spending real time with these journalists ‑‑ and I ‑‑ you know, one thing we didn’t ‑‑ we didn’t thank the Boston Globe, and we probably should, because that institution really opened their doors and their hearts to us, really guided us, really helped us, every step of the way right up through shooting. They were an incredible asset to this movie. Of course, the reporters and the editors were incredibly helpful. And, you know, I think if Josh and I came away with anything from this it is just what hard‑working, dedicated, curious, and committed professionals these reporters are. And, you know, for any profession you take your hat off to people like that. And for us, it felt more like a social calling than it did a job with these people, and it was incredibly inspirational.”

On their message to the Survivors Network, SNAP:

Josh Singer: “Well, we actually spent the morning down at the cathedral. We were out protesting with probably a good 20, 30 SNAP folks. Tom, me and Mark Ruffalo came, and it was very fulfilling to stand there with them and urge the Church to take action.”

Tom McCarthy: “Our message is: “We hear you. You are not alone. There’s no shame in this. Come out. Speak loud. Be heard. And save lives. And the truly great activists in that organization are doing that, led by people like Barbara Blaine; and Phil Saviano; Joe Crowley, who was very helpful on this film; and we’re forever indebted to them. And I think we all agree, inside and outside the Catholic Church, we got to do everything we can to protect the children. ”

Best Actress In A Supporting Role – Alicia Vikander

On whether the Oscar win and her success with The Danish Girl will open doors for more LGBT stories to be told:

Alicia Vikander: “I definitely hope so. I came on this film only two years ago and I know that this was not an easy film to get made and it has been almost 15 years that one of our producers, Gail, had worked on it and to see kind of the cultural change with just me over the years since I actually finished the film with, I don’t know, with Caitlyn Jenner coming out, with Transparent and Tangerine it’s like a social change.This film has been so educational for me and with so many people that I got to meet and in preparation for it I hope that it can open up an even wider conversation, if our film can be a part of that discussion. ”

On what it was like to win:

“I’m trying to remember anything that just happened in the last five minutes. Every year I woke up and set the alarm clock at 2:00 a.m and to have my mom’s hand and to experience being just here in this room has been pretty cool.”

On Chris Rock:

” I just admired him. I admire him as a big comedian, and I’m so happy that he came in tonight and just brought up both a lot of laughs and brought a lot of reality issues in the same way and I’m very happy that he is our host tonight.”

Best Production Design: Colin Gibson (Production Design); Lisa Thompson (Set Decoration)

On filming in Namibia:

Colin Gibson: “Namibia is a fantastic, fantastic country and a fantastic location. The crew were terrific. The people are great. And I’d like to say you should all go there, but could you hold off because I’m going back for a holiday, and I don’t want it crowded. ”

Best Costume Design: Jenny Beavan

On her own Oscar costume:

” I really don’t do frocks, and I absolutely don’t do heels. I simply can’t wear them. I’ve got a bad back that, and I look ridiculous in a beautiful gown. And this was an homage to Mad Max and I didn’t get it quite right at the BAFTAs obviously. The scarf was supposed to be an oily rag, but I actually got it in Marks & Spencer’s (UK Department store) with a little Swarovski addition on the back. And unfortunately, I had a shoe malfunction. The glitter fell off that shoe, but you know what? I blame the desert sand for that entirely. I just like feeling comfortable. And I’m sorry, as far as I’m concerned, I’m really dressed up. And also for my friends at PETA, the People’s Ethical Treatment of Animals, fake, not leather.

On the costume department being female friendly and what Hollywood can learn from it:

“We’re extremely good organizers. We’re good at scheduling, we’re good at budgets. I think they could learn quite a lot from us. We tend to run quite fun departments, but I don’t know if that would help others. I love working with women directors. I think we’re a really organized bunch.”

On whether she’s looking to do more period or more futuristic work next:

“I have actually done quite a lot of contemporary films. I’ve simply never done anything futuristic, and if you’re going to go futuristic, this is the perfect vehicle. I mean, you know, George Miller’s mind is just so extraordinary. But no, I’m up for any challenge really. I just love attacking something completely new. But if another Jane Austen comes up, I’ll enjoy that just as much, but I do love the challenge of the new. So who knows what it will be. ”

Best Film Editing – Margaret Sixel

On Women film-makers:

“You mean are women underrepresented? I guess that’s an understatement. I think there is some prejudice that women can’t cut action, but I’m hoping that will change with the Star Wars girls and me. I think it will change. I think it’s already changing, don’t you? That’s my personal feeling. And you just watch. In the next ten years, I think the balance will come back in our favor, hopefully.”

On gender diversity in the editing room:

” In our cutting room we did pay attention to it, and my post supervisor, Matt, who is an amazing post supervisor, he did make an effort to hire women so, you know, not all guys are bad.”

Best Cinematography – Emmanuel Lubeski

On how he was feeling about Mad Max dominating the evening:

“I never saw the Academy Awards as a competition. I think it’s something that you guys created. It’s more a celebration of the craft and the art of film-making in general. And I’m just so lucky to be here. And I don’t think it should be viewed as a competition because it’s not objective. It’s not, you know, five cinematographers running a hundred meters to see who gets the Oscar first. It’s very subjective, and it’s only 6,000 people that vote. So I’m just lucky. Doesn’t mean I’m the best cinematographer. ”

On his first reaction when reading the script for The Revenant:

“I enjoyed the script very much. But it seemed a script that was slightly, how can I say, it was a revenge story, and the first conversation I had with Alejandro was how important it was for him not to make only a revenge story. He wanted to make it much more complex. And once he told me what he wanted more. He made it much more complex and more interesting.”

Best Sound Editing: Mark Mangini and David White

On the soundscape they worked with:

Mark Mangini: “Let me frame that for a minute by stating that rather than talk about the details of what we did, I think it is important to understand that because of the way this film was shot, there’s, you know, high speed cameras, and there’s wind machines, and there’s sand, virtually none of the sound that was recorded during production was very usable, so everything that you hear in MAD MAX was something that David and I and our team created. I mean, down to the smallest little footsteps down to the biggest explosion. That’s all from the minds and the creations of sound editors, designers etc… I feel like that is a pretty stunning accomplishment.”

David White: “The other thing I’d add to that is that everything had to be believable, because it was a world where, you know, civilization has crumbled, so the only thing you can resurrect is a combustion engine or whatever so it could be a very believable sound. They are all very mechanical, basic things. So they had to have an authenticity to them, which George was very serious about the whole way through.”

Best Hair and Make-Up: Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega and Damian Martin

On the challenge of working with George Miller:

Lesley Vanderwalt: “The challenge wasn’t George. George is amazing. It’s George’s vision, and we were just helping, you know, facilitate it, create it. He, I think, thinks very much, that’s why we’re working on it, along the same wavelengths as we do. I think all his crew were very much a part of his process, you know, his creative process.”

On George Miller’s vision

Lesley Vanderwalt: “I’ve known George since 1981 was the first job I did with George. He started talking and you start visualizing yourself and you start working it. And then there was this massive office with these just fantastic, you know, from beginning to end and all around were different storyboards and different artists that were working on comic books, everything at the same time, so you had the Japanese version, all different versions of things.”

Best Documentary Short – Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

On her second Oscar win and if her film has made Pakistan change its laws:

“I was honestly a dark horse; so I was kind of not expecting this at all. But the power of being nominated for an Academy Award really does mean that for a country like Pakistan that you can change laws. And the Prime Minister of Pakistan earlier this week on Monday, in fact, had me come to the Prime Minister’s office, screened the film. Parliamentary and legislators were there. They are re‑drafting the law. My film deals with forgiveness and how the law is manipulated, and now they’re going to change that.”

If she’s had the chance to speak to Saba:

“I am going to go back and speak to Saba now. But I spoke to her a few days ago, and she’s obviously very excited by it. She somehow thinks that we are winning the World Cup, which apparently we have now. And, you know, I think for her, she wanted her story told, and the impact of her story is tremendous, because it is going to change lives, and it’s going to save lives, and there can be no greater reward than that.”

On whether splitting her time between Pakistan, Canada and around the world has informed her film-making:

“When you live in a country like Canada, you begin to realize how right things can be. And then when you travel back to Pakistan and to other countries which are in conflict, you can see what’s going wrong. And I think it’s important to see what the human ‑‑ what human beings are capable of. I mean, Canada has a stellar record in human rights. It’s got so much that I learn from. And I think going back and forth between Canada and Pakistan has taught me that you need to strive to make Pakistan a better country, and people like me who invest in that country, who start difficult conversations, practically risking our lives to do so, that there is a payback and a reward at the end of it.”

Best Animated Short Film: Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala

On how important it is to have their film shown to a wide audience:

Pato Escala: “For us it’s really important. It’s really an amazing opportunity to get this message through, this message about the importance of family, about the importance of the family must be together and cannot be separated for any reason, for political reasons or whatever other reason. So for us it’s really great. It’s certainly an incredible opportunity.”

On what inspired them to get into film-making

Gabriel Osorio: “We want to represent our own voice in animation. A Chilean voice, a Latin American voice. It’s going to be different from what Europeans or in North America, like it’s going to be different, you know, it’s going to be like another kind of a visual aesthetic. Another kind of point of view. So, that’s why. We want to bring you like what’s happening in Latin America right now, what happened before, what’s going to happen in the future. And it’s incredible, you know, for the one of you that ‑‑ that has been to Latin America you are going to understand me. It’s very unique. It’s very different. And for those who don’t know Latin America, please be our guest.”

Best Animated Feature : Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera

On collaborating with Ronnie Del Carmen

Jonas Rivera: Ronnie should be up here, too. He is an essential part of the movie. He contributed so much to the emotion, the heart of the movie, and we are incredibly lucky to work with him.

Pete Docter: Ronnie is one of the great visual storytellers in animation, and he comes proudly from the Philippines, as you know. l, I apologize, we are a little bit out of our heads. I mean, you look at all the nominees tonight in animation, a lot of talk about diversity, you see this category films from around the world, from Japan and from Latin America and from good old California, and we are proud to be among that group. I think animation leans that way. Ronnie is a great artist that represents that. We create stories, stories come from everywhere, and so someone like Ronnie really brings that to Pixar. We are proud of him, and he is definitely sharing this with us.

On why it’s important for children to learn lessons at an early age:

Pete Docter: I will say primarily what we were after was entertainment and fun, and then as we got in there we realized this has something very deep and applicable to every human being. And the weird thing about emotions are they’re completely invisible to us most of the time. We know we feel angry, but we don’t stop and really rationalize what’s driving all of that, and so this film has the potential to help people kind of unpack and think about some of these things that they don’t normally. We have heard from a lot of folks, teachers, especially parents of special needs kids who have said this film has given them a new vocabulary to talk about emotions for the first time, and that is nothing we were aiming for, but it is such an amazing by‑product of the movie. And we’re so thankful that we are able to contribute in that way.

On the “torturous” path they took to get the film to screen:

Jonas Rivera: It is a torturous path in that it was a big hunk of life, and obviously the writer, you could speak to that, but we love our process and our team so much that in a weird way this is sort of a heartbreaker because it’s over. This movie is finally done and we’re on to the next things at Pixar and we love it. But, yes, it was a long road.”

Pete Docter: I mean I think that when you see a movie, you kind of feel like, well, of course, that’s what anger looks like or that’s how memory works, but there were many, many, many attempts to make that visual, to make it clear. This movie, we talked to scientists who said, Possibly the most complex thing in the known universe is the human mind, and we are like, Oh, we just decided to make a movie about that. How are we going to simplify this so that we understand it, for one, kids understand it, and even more difficult, executives understand it. So we had to really make sure things were simple and clear, and I’m joking, of course. We had amazing folks that collaborated with us at Disney and Pixar as well, but it was a long process of rewriting that took three and a half years.

On a most memorable moment during Awards season:

Jonas Rivera: I have to say mine was meeting Ice Cube. I’m a huge fan of NWA and Ice Cube, and we were lucky enough, this is so name droppy, but here we are, we were lucky enough to sit next to them, the Straight Outta Compton table at one of these things and I got to meet Ice Cube, and I introduced myself as a producer of Inside Out not knowing what I’d get, and he said, Oh, man, that movie’s dope. And I got to be honest with you, that was a pretty good moment for me.

Best Documentary Feature: Asif Kapadia and James Gay-Rees

On the most surprising reaction

Asif Kapadia: I just think what’s happened is the kind of perception of Amy has changed. A lot of people, particularly in the U.S., I have to say when I first met people and talked to them, they almost summed Amy up in one word: She’s a train wreck. And the biggest thing has been now people think of her in a very different way. They realize she was an amazing talent, she was so clever, she was beautiful. She was healthy, she had friends, she had people who cared for her. There’s so much more to her. And actually most people say they just wanted to give her a hug, they just wanted to give her some love. And that’s great but sadly she didn’t get necessarily all that love when she was around but now I think there’s a much better feeling people have about her, so that’s what I’d say. That’s the big change, in my opinion.

On the film’s Oscar win:

James Gay‑Rees: “I think at the end of the day, just to reinforce what Asif said, that at the end of the day the film is about Amy, and you know what, she became a bit of a punch bag, she became a bit of a bad gag in the press and this film has opened people’s eyes to her again. And people now understand what a great talent she was and they’ve remembered that. And that’s what our job was. Our job wasn’t to blame anybody up, our job was basically to tell people how great Amy Winehouse was. And I think we’ve done a little bit of that and I think that that should be enough.”

On setting the film’s tone:

Asif Kapadia: “I mean, the film began almost a year after Amy had died, so it was quite soon. And it took about three years to make. And so I never met Amy, I never saw her perform live, I didn’t know her personally, but she was a local girl. I’m a north Londoner, she lived very close to where I lived. The story was going on almost down the street. So the opportunity came along and we just started talking to people and doing research and once we started doing research we realized there was a different story. She was a different person to the one that everyone thought they knew. People seemed to think, oh, yeah, I know who Amy Winehouse is. I’ve seen her on TV, I’ve seen her in concert, she’s a mess. But actually what we kept hearing, from her friends, was if you’re going to make this film you have to show the real girl, you have to show the real Amy. And that became like the mission, that’s what we tried to do. And for me this is as much a film about London, this is a film about where we live, this is a film about now. A lot of journalists that interviewed me when we made the film were the people that met and interviewed Amy. So a lot of it is about, this is a story about the entertainment business, it’s about the media, it’s about journalism as much as it is about her as an artist and a singer and a writer and everything like that. So it kind of came by accident, it came along and then it became a bit of an obsession to try to do our job as best as we could.

On the gender and race discussion being left out of the documentary category:

Asif Kapadia: The Welshman. I think if you look at the winner that just came through here and you look at the filmmakers, I think it’s one of the genres that is actually quite diverse are the documentary sections. But all we can do is do our bit. I’m from an Indian background, my background is Muslim, I’m from a working class background in North London. I didn’t grow up in the film business, I didn’t know anyone in the film business. And so all I can do is do my bit and kind of be diverse. What I would say to you is to ask those questions to the white people that come up here, not just the brown people, because or else that might make someone racist. So ask the diversity questions to everyone and yourselves and your bosses. How many brown people in this room? A few here, but over there not many. So that’s kind of a thing for everyone, I would say.

Best Visual Effects: Andrew Whitehurst, Paul Norris, Mark Ardington and Sara Bennett

On being up against the big hitters such as Star Wars:

Andrew Whitehurst: I don’t think any of us actually felt that there was an issue in looking at the budgets between the films, because looking at all of the nominees this year, they’re all such different movies. You’ve got sort of an existential western, you’ve got us, you’ve got that kind of pop art, feminist action road movie. It’s an amazing range of films this year, and I think to me that was the most exciting aspect of being one of the nominees is just looking at the range of different kinds of movies this year. So I don’t think we felt any kind of pressure particularly, but it was ‑‑ I’m not going to lie, I mean, it’s an astonishing feeling thinking that actually we were the ones who ended up winning it.

On what visual effects can do to hire and retain more women and people of color

Sara Bennett: I’m lucky enough I was a co‑founder of the company in London called Milk Visual Effects. So as a manager it makes it easy for me I guess because ‑‑ no, it’s not easy. Let’s say two people come knocking, a man and woman come for the same job, they had about the same talent, I’d pick the female and get more women in basically, just so it will make the ratio more even. But I’ve been doing it for 17 years. There’s a lot of women, a lot of brilliant women doing what I do in our industry. It just so happens you get picked, if you’re nominated for an Oscar or a BAFTA, but there’s a lot of women doing it already. So we just need more, I guess.

On advice for young girls trying to get into visual effects:

Sara Bennett: I think it’s about personality, and I’m confident that there is a lot of men in our industry and they’re probably are ‑‑ they may be more vocal than we are but I think you have kind of self‑belief and confidence, and for me I’ve always been looked up to in my ‑‑ what I do, and I just think you need to ‑‑ you need to have the personality and the confidence and the kind of you‑really‑want‑to‑do‑it because it’s really unsociable, it’s long hours; it’s fun, but it’s hard work basically.

Best Original Song: Sam Smith and Jimmy Napes:

On winning the Oscar

Sam Smith: It means the world to me. When I read the Ian McKellen piece, I was just bowled over by it, and I wanted to take this opportunity to show how much I care about my community. In the past in my career, people have said at the beginning that I didn’t and stuff, and I just wanted to make it clear how much I truly do care about the LGBT community. At the same time, we are just completely overwhelmed.

On Chris Rock:

Sam Smith: I thought it amazing. I thought it was amazing. And it was so prominent throughout the show, and I thought that was important. It’s important that all of these things get raised because we are not okay, you know. There is so much that needs to be changed in the world, and it’s so amazing that people are speaking about it and fighting against it.

On being informed, he (Sam Smith) wasn’t the first openly gay actor to win the Oscar:

Sam Smith: Shit. Fuck that.

On whether he thinks black lives matter and what support from the community means to him:

Sam Smith: Of course I do, I think that; of course I do. I’m still learning. I’m still learning every day how bad it is in certain places for black people and for the black culture, and I’m still learning slowly but surely, but it’s absolutely awful what is going on in certain parts of the world, and I’m just really behind it. That’s all I can say.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Mark Rylance:

On whether he thought they were going to say Mark Ruffalo instead of Rylance:

“No, but Mark Ruffalo told me on the Red Carpet that that had happened to him at the BAFTAs, that whoever was giving the award had slowed down after the “R” and a number of people on his team, as people call it, had looked around to congratulate him, and then the dreadful y‑l‑a‑n‑c‑e had come forward and crushed his dreams.”

On his win:

“I find people who come up and say things, you know, about competing as actors and I know that it’s necessary to make a show out of it, but those actors are so good, I would be happy just to be ‑‑ I feel like more I’m a spokesman when you win than something that’s better than the other nominees. And I know that there’s so many wonderful nominees just outside the five of us: Idris Elba and Paul Dano and all kinds of actors too, so I don’t take it too seriously. ”

On Spielberg offering him a role before but he turned it down:

“He offered me a small part in Empire of the Sun. I think it must have been 1986. I turned that down, and then he came back and offered me a better part, and I accepted it, but then a theater director who I very much wanted to work with, had wanted to work with for a number of years, also offered me a part. And Steven very nicely said I could step away from the film if I wanted to but I had to tell him in four hours, and I did decide after those four hours to step away and do the season of plays. Though the season of plays didn’t go that well, I met my wife on the first day and now I’ve been able to work with Steven again. So it turned out to be an all right call. ”

On going back and forth between New York stage and juggling Awards season:

“It’s very exciting. And you feel very grand being driven from a small theater in Brooklyn in a black car to an airport and then flown in one of these incredible, very powerful jets with big windows that you can look out and see Chicago in the distance where I used to live, Lake Michigan. And it’s just a very trippy experience. And arrive here and have so many people you don’t know come up and say very nice things to you. I recommend it. ”

On whether he had rehearse his speech before or if he spoke from the heart:

I always think about what I’m going to say, and I choose two or three options. I had to open Sam Wanamaker’s Globe Theatre once and there were seven opening nights, and I had to make a lot of speeches. And I found that if you over‑prepare a speech, it’s like an over‑prepared acting performance. It’s best to have a few different options and a few different endings and beginnings. I almost dropped the whole thing, actually, after the very funny interviews in Compton because I really longed that I was a black actor at that moment receiving an award. But I didn’t drop it. No, I make it up partly, but I know the general things I want to say. I know I wanted to praise Steven and I wanted to praise my fellow nominees and supporting actors generally, because I really enjoy the work of supporting actors when I go to the cinema. And then there were other things I could have said but I didn’t quite get there. I think it’s best to try and be spontaneous with preparation.

Best Short Film: Benjamin Cleary and Shan Christopher Ogilvie

On what they love about film-making:

Benjamin Cleary: That’s a deep one. I don’t know, I suppose it’s when you come up with a script and you pour your heart and soul into it, and luckily sometimes you get people who you show it to and they join in, like Shan and Serena, the other producer. They start to share your vision. They start to say with five grand we can make this happen, and that’s a rare thing. And it’s a great thing, and it’s something that I was just so lucky to have with this. We started this as friends, it started so small, and it was amazing to have people who just supported the vision and wanted to make it happen as much as I did. I think that’s all I can really say. It’s like ‑‑ I feel genuinely honored to have shared this with five or six best friends. We never thought this was going to happen, and we never thought our little film would get here. So I think anyone can do it if you’ve got people like this behind you.

Shan Christopher Ogilvie: I think for me film had quite a big impact on me sort of growing up and it actually had quite a transformative effect on me as a person. So for me as a storyteller, the goal is to be able to touch someone and to actually impact their life in a way that actually changes them in some way, changes their behaviors, changes their thoughts. We’ve had some of the most amazing feedback from people that come up to us, and like, you know, this is amazing. Festival wins are amazing, but nothing compares to when someone comes up to you after watching the film with, like, water in their eyes and genuinely thanks you for that. It’s incredible.

On the success of an Irish Film:

Benjamin Cleary: I think you said the winner, but I think for Irish film we’ve had an amazing year this year. I saw Room and Brooklyn in Savannah back in October at the Savannah Film Festival, and two films that I thought were incredible. Room, I watched and cried about three times and tried to hide it from my friends while we were watching. I think we might have won an Oscar tonight, but I think in terms for Irish film, getting nominations like this is a win. And, you know, I feel incredibly honored to be mentioned in the same conversations as these films. And so, you know, I think a great year for Irish film. Long may it continue, and hopefully it’s the start of something that’s going to continue on and keep going from here.

Best Actor in a Leading Role: Leonardo DiCaprio/Best Director: Alejandro Iñárritu

To Inarritu on his second Oscar win:

“Well, I couldn’t be more happy. Every film is like is like a son. So you cannot like more one son than the other. I love this film as I loved Birdman, and I think this experience and sharing this with Leo and with all the nominees, part of the crew that we are celebrating tonight. I think the award that I’m getting is on behalf of all of them and they make possible. So I couldn’t be more happy, especially because we are celebrating tonight, and that’s fantastic.”

On What they love about being a storyteller:

Leonardo DiCaprio : ” Look, I grew up in East Los Angeles. I was very close to the Hollywood studio system. But I felt detached from it my whole life. And to have had parents that have allowed me to be a part of this industry, to take me on auditions every day after school, and to tell stories like this has been my dream ever since I was 4 years old. And this film to me was exemplary in the sense that I got to work with a director. And all the things we spoke about off camera during the making of this movie transferred their way on screen. This was true storytelling. We really got to have a collaborative experience together, and this was a journey that I’ll never forget with Alejandro. It took up, you know, such a large portion of our lives, but as a result, we have a great film to look back on for years to come.”

Inarritu: “For me, it just basically I think that life is so uncontrollable. I think that storytelling is a way for us to feel, in a way, can confront a huge amount of emotions and possibilities and feel, you know, beautiful and horrible emotions, but always in a way being in a comfortable zone knowing there is another story that can teach us a lot. So it’s a way to control life, you know, to have an oxygen capsule of life without suffering for real, that can teach us for when the time comes, for being in love or do we have a problem, we can suddenly get what is that idea. So storytelling is oxygen for life that protects us. That’s how I feel.

On Diversity:

Inarritu: ” I think the debate is not only about black and white people. I think we are yellow and Native Americans and Latin Americans. So the complexity of the society of the world is much more than one or the other. I think it’s becoming a little bit very polarized, very politicized, without observing the complexity and the beautiful of how being this country’s so mixed, as my country which is mixed, but this is a multi‑mixed country. That is the real power of it. So anyway, what I am super impressed about is that still we are dragging this tribal thinking with this. I think one of the problems that we are suffering is there is no moderate platforms to talk about something deeply, very important, that in a way it’s deciding the destinies of people around the world ‑‑ not only here ‑‑ by the color of their skin. So that we are still dragging those prejudices and tribal thinking at this time? It seems to me absolutely absurd. In the fifties, I remember that the people that have long hair, the Beatles were considered like, “Oh, my God, I will never.” You know, and that was so stupid that now we laugh about it. Why we cannot get rid of those prejudices about the color of the skin is completely irrelevant. Anyway, that is what I wanted to say. I didn’t have a lot of time, but I say it.”

On the biggest challenge making The Revenant:

Leonardo DiCaprio: “I felt very honored, quite frankly. This whole thing has been an amazing experience. And, you know, for me to be able to sit there and not only talk about the film, but to talk about something that I’ve been duly as obsessed with besides cinema, and that’s, you know, our environment and climate change. To be able to speak about that in a platform of, I don’t know, hundreds of millions of people that are watching this, to me, like I said, this is the most existential crisis our civilization has ever known and I wanted to speak out about that tonight because, simultaneously while doing this brilliant film that Alejandro directed, I’ve been doing a documentary about climate change which has brought me to Greenland, to China, to India to speak with the world’s leading experts on this issue. And the time is now. It’s imperative that we act. I feel so overwhelmed with, you know, gratitude for what happened tonight. But I feel there is a ticking clock out there. There’s a sense of urgency that we all must do something proactive about this issue. And certainly with this upcoming election, the truth is this: If you have do not believe in climate change, you do not believe in modern science or empirical truths and you will be on the wrong side of history. And we need to all join together and vote for leaders who care about the future of this civilization and the world as we know it.

On how it feels to win the Oscar:

Leonardo DiCaprio: It all feels incredibly surreal. You know, it’s surreal because you can’t reach out and physically meet everybody. You hear it on the internet, you hear it from other people, and, you know, the truth is, we always strive for the best in what we do. But this year in particular, I’ve been overwhelmed with such support. Really, truly, by so many fans and so many people in the industry. It’s quite shocking, actually. And what can you say except I’m very grateful, I really am.

Alejandro G. Iñárritu: And I want to say that it’s funny because the conception how a film is being made, I think, is wrong. This is an intervening collaboration. You know, everything is connected. So when Chivo won, we all won. Because what Chivo photographed was the wardrobe, was the makeup, was the performance of Leo, was the ideas of the original. When I won, everybody won. So, I mean, all of the actors, everything. Leo won by himself. But we are absolutely interdependent, we depend on the other. So every award of every film, honestly, it’s funny enough, as everything in life is, interconnected and it reflects the effort of hundreds of people. So that’s what is amazing about today, that the awards that we won, it is celebrated by all the team no matter if somebody won or not. And truly, that’s very true, when you work for months with a team like that, you know, that we were basically part of the success of any territory. We were all involved in anything.

Best Actress in a Lead Role – Brie Larson

What her win means for victims:

” I don’t necessarily think an Oscar win changes anything for those women. I do hope that though ‑‑ and in the core of it when we want to talk about feeling trapped, and that can be trapped in a way that is metaphor or a physical representation of that, we want to talk about abuse, the many different ways that we as humans can be abused or feel confined. I hope that this is a story that honestly changes people and allows them to be free. To me, making this movie was my own search for freedom and breaking free of my own personal boundaries. And I hope that when people watch this, they realize that they have it in themselves to break free of whatever it is that’s holding them back. “

On an important scene in Room featuring the media, after Spotlight won Best Picture:

“It’s an important thing to me because boundaries are really difficult to create for yourself, and especially if you are not somebody like my character I’m playing in Room who is not seasoned in boundaries and isn’t as aware. Like a lot of us in the industry, if we watch that scene in the movie, we can kind of see the train coming, and we know, Oh, this is going to be too much. She’s not ready for this. But for her, there’s no one there that’s on the inside that’s explaining to her that she has strength and boundaries, and that this is not a proper way of going about this next phase in her life. So I think from the journalist’ point of view, always remembering that we are human beings. We are sensitive, loving human beings that deeply at the core of ourselves are worried that we are unlovable. And I think if we can constantly keep that in our heads, especially when we’re interviewing and try instead to get into the soul of a person, and not just worry so much about maybe a earpiece that’s in your ear that’s, you know, your boss telling you that you have to ask something 30 times. I understand that you’re trying to keep your job; but at the same time, we are people, and I think if we can get back to the humanity of this and respect boundaries, we are going to go a long way, and we are going to get real truth instead of performances for TV.”

On whether Room colored her experience of having children:

“I don’t have kids, but I do have a little taste of an understanding of how complicated it is to be a parent. I think there’s a lot of unknowns when it comes to parenting and the idea of jumping into that world, and I personally have problems with trying to be perfect and being devastated when I realize every day that that’s not a possibility, and I think that that comes with parenting as well. So I think understanding that it is a symbiotic relationship. Jacob, I learn more from him than he ever did from me. There’s so much wisdom in a child, and there is so much ease to the way that he is that I’m really excited for whenever that journey comes. I’m not sure what it means fully to be a parent. I only experience a small taste of it, but I am excited about it. I think children are just magical, full of wisdom, incredible little people. ”

On advice to people who haven’t achieved their dreams yet:

“You just have to do it. I mean, I wish that there was any sort of rules or code, but in fact, I think the way you get there is by breaking it, by listening to what’s happening inside of yourself. I personally had many moments of crossroads, probably hundreds of moments of crossroads where I could go the way that people were telling me to go, or I could go the way that felt right within me. And it took me 20 years to be standing here on this stage, but I wouldn’t want it any other way: To be so grateful for all of the hardships that it took to get here and to not be discouraged by it. I think to live this life it’s a bizarre combination of being plastic and incredibly stubborn and also really curious about what this life holds; to have no expectation, but to have an idea about a beautiful horizon that’s in front of you and constantly moving towards it.

Best Picture: Michael Sugar, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin and Blye Pagon Faust

What they learnt about journalism that they never knew before:

Blye Pagon Faust: I think we knew that journalists were important, but I don’t think we understood the depth of the importance of investigative journalism, and that’s just good boots on the ground, local reporting. And the impact that it can have on a global scale has just become abundantly clear to us.

On getting the message across in an artistic way:

Steven Golin: “You know, there was a thriller aspect to the way the story unfolded. And I think that it’s a real testament to Tom’s direction and their screenplay, the way that they developed the story, because, you know, the logline of the story is not very commercial if you’re not in this room. And I think that they did a really great job, and I think the performances of the ensemble cast were so subtle, and the actors were so generous, that it really allowed the story to come through. In a way, that’s actually difficult. I think ‑‑ I always like to say Tom hit a very small bulls‑eye because I think if you’re off by a little bit, you’re off by a lot. And it was really beautifully executed from a script point of view and execution point of view, and the actors really were amazing.”

On why they took the film to Open Road Film

Michael Sugar: Open Road and Participant Media, in particular, have been great champions of film and creating a different option for filmmakers. I personally hadn’t worked very much with Open Road, just a little bit before, and they’re extraordinary partners. And Steve and I have done many movies with Participant, who are also really courageous with the chances they’ll take on making films. They make great films. So that partnership seemed like a terrific one for us, and they were involved from ‑‑ from the jump. So we are really excited that we brought this home for them, too.

On whether the film changed their perception on religion:

Nicole Rocklin: I don’t think it really changed our look at how we viewed religion. I think it was more about the institution than it was an attack on religion. So whether it’s a religious institution, or it’s Flint with water, or if it’s a government agency, that’s really the way we looked at it because it was not an attack in any way on Catholicism. It really was the institutional issues.

Tags: 88th Academy Awards